Starting the Conceptual Program

June 23, 2009 Under Michael Conroy's guidance, I am beginning the Conceptual Weightlifting program. It will take me into competition season in the fall. Conroy is a former Olympics coach, now coaching at a high school in Idaho. He says his athletes have made great gains on this program, and they use it on a continuing basis. "This is a modification of a training program developed by top USAW Coaches Mike Burgener and Steve Gough and is based upon their application of "Bulgarian" Training,"(Idaho weightlifting).

"We coined the term 'conceptual' because none of the training is etched in stone. . . Here is the philosophy of this program. Week one is "Power Movements". Week Two is "Hang Movements". Week Three are "Three Stage Movements' ( or pulls to a lift) and Week Four are the "Classical Movements." Week 5 is prep week prior to a competition.

It's heavy, demanding, and gears the athlete specifically for competition. I started it last night, and immediately liked the lower volume, higher load approach.


Finished in September. Loved it. Got a PR in the meet. I plan to use this as meet prep from now on. It makes such sense to train specifically for meets.

Idaho Weightlifting Club is a fantastic online resource. They've posted several programs, even include Excel spreadsheets with Macros built in so you can enter your weights and have it compute your percentages.


Related link
Ivan Abadjiev and the Bulgarian Weightlifting System

2 comments:

  1. Unknown3:38 PM

    How is this program going? I've looked at it before, and it seems pretty interesting.

    Week 3 is the 3-stage lifts? What exactly is this? I mean, I assume it's breaking the lift down into pull, snatch/clean, and recover... is that right?

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  2. The Mighty Kat1:33 PM

    I couldn't be happier about this program. It landed me a PR in the meet I used it for. I plan to use it the last few weeks before any meet. It makes such good sense. I need to post a follow-up.

    This program mimicks competition, so you only do cleans, jerks, and snatches.

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